Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/297

 people—not even with the cable—that we have to do just now. Removing our eyes from such, we fix them and our attention on a very small steamer which lies alongside one of the wharves, and shows evidence of having been severely handled by winds and waves.

At the time we direct attention to her, a few passengers were landing from this vessel, and among them were our friends, Sam Shipton, Robin Wright, Jim Slagg, John Shanks, alias Stumps, and Letta Langley. Most of the passengers had luggage of some sort, but our friends possessed only a small bag each, slung over their shoulders. A letter from the authorities of Sarawak certified that they were honest men.

"Now, Robin," said Sam, as they pushed through the crowds, "there seems to me something auspicious in our arriving about the same time with the Great Eastern, and I hope something may come of it, but our first business is to make inquiries for Mrs. Langley. We will therefore go and find the hotel to which we have been recommended, and make that our headquarters while we are engaged in our search."

"Can I lend you a hand, Mr. Shipton?" asked Slagg, who had become, as it were, irresistibly more respectful to Robin and Sam since coming among civilised people.